Qatar hands Barclays $250m to promote Doha as financial hub
A TOP Barclays shareholder has handed one of the bank’s private equity units $250m (£154m) to set up a new joint venture.
Qatar’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, and the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Authority, a government agency aimed at boosting the country’s financial services, are hoping the investment will help to promote Doha as a financial centre.
As part of the deal, Barclays Natural Resources Investments (BNRI) will open up a new office in Doha under the auspices of the Qatar Financial Centre.
QFC managing director Abdulrahman Ahmad Al-Shaibi called the agreement “an important milestone in Qatar’s strategy of developing an asset management hub and promoting the expansion of Qatar’s financial services industry”.
The $250m in new capital invested with Barclays will mostly be ploughed into BNRI’s larger $2.1bn pool of assets under management, which are invested in energy and resources companies across various regions including the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa.
The Qatar Investment Authority has been among Barclays’ biggest shareholders since the depths of the financial crisis, when the bank made an urgent appeal for capital that was met by Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.